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Purpose This study aims to investigate whether gamified elements affect the use behaviour of young people (between age 12 and 25 years) on consumption-related mobile applications. Design/methodology/approach A survey was conducted on 151 young people between the ages of 12 and 25 years. Findings The results showed that use behaviour on consumption mobile applications was affected by gamification. Behavioural intention to use was affected by the performance expectancy (PE) and effort expectancy (EE) of mobile application designs. Mobile applications characteristics do not affect behavioural intention to use mobile applications but through the mediator mobile application designs. Research limitations/implications This study also proposes mechanisms that explain how mobile apps characteristics affect EE and PE through app designs. Use behaviour is affected by Gamification elements. Affective need and social need link up uses and gratification (U&G) theory and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT)in gamification context. This study confirms the affective need affecting behavioural intention (Thongsri et al., 2018). In this regard, the mechanism between the relationship of affective need and behavioural intention was showed. Affective need through both PE and EE influencing behavioural intention. Practical implications Corporations should consider adding gamified elements into consumption-related mobile apps to increasing usage behaviour. Lucky draws, quizzes and games could be built in for mobile apps. Mobile app designs and characteristics could improve user experience by allowing consumers to perform their search and buying processes easily. Mobile app designs will not directly influence “behavioral intention to use” but use behaviour. Social implications Practitioners need to look at the problem from technological and customer perspectives. From technological viewpoint, both mobile apps characteristics and design are important in affecting user behaviour. From customer’s perspective, it would be helpful to add gaming elements to the mobile apps and induce emotion. One may also use visual image to create an immersive experience on the development of storyline. Prospective customers might focus on what is going on in the story and pay less attention on its own logic. Thus, simply lucky draw might not have a true effect since player have its own belief working. A suitable story element could have positive effect on mobile apps use behaviour. Originality/value This study is one of the first to examine the association between gamification and use behaviour on consumption-related mobile applications. A new framework was proposed by integrating UTAUT model and U&G theory.

Technological advancements in virtual reality have influenced festivalgoers, performers, and festival organizers. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizers of cultural and tourism festivals have sought to deliver festivals online using virtual reality to provide an immersive experience from home. However, despite growing interest in virtual reality for festivals, there is no current systematic review to synthesize knowledge from academic papers within the festival context. This paper aims to provide a structured understanding of extant virtual reality research regarding festivals by using a systematic literature review. After a comprehensive review of extant literature from major databases, 19 relevant articles were extracted and synthesized according to the types, venues, roles, and objectives of the virtual reality applications. This study is the first systematic literature review to examine the current landscape of consumer research on virtual reality in festivals. Our results show that the limited numbers of extant literature concerning virtual reality in festivals indicates that this is an important yet significantly under-researched topic for future research. Current literature on virtual reality in festival contexts also lacks an in-depth understanding of consumer engagement and experiences. This paper recommends incorporating the application of theory and robust consumer research methods into future virtual festival research. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2022-06-05-016 Full Text: PDF

PurposeA fuller understanding of the information search behaviour of prospective students in the digital era is one of the keys to success in university recruitment. The purpose of this paper is to investigate students’ university choice factors in relation to the online environment.Design/methodology/approachIn total, 637 samples from 11 private higher education institutions were collected and tested against assumptions before performing statistical analysis including exploratory factor analysis and mean comparison.FindingsThe findings revealed that there are some significant differences in gender and academic discipline in the use of the internet to search for university information. In addition, four constructs of university information were identified that are perceived as important by students in their search behaviour: “university reputation”, “eligibility and affordability”, “teaching and learning” and “university tangibility”. The outcomes of this research provide some noteworthy insights which have numerous strategic digital marketing implications.Originality/valueWhile most existing studies have explored types of social media apps or online channels that prospective students use, little research has touched on students’ university choice factors in relation to the online environment. Responding to Constantinides and Zinck Stagno (2011) and Hemsley-Brownet al.’s (2016) call, this paper aims to address this research gap by investigating students’ university information search in relation to the online environment.

In the response to the coronavirus pandemic, much attention has been invested in promoting COVID-19 vaccination. However, the impact of seasonal influenza should not be neglected, particularly during the winter influenza surge. Currently, most influenza vaccination campaigns target at healthcare workers or high-risk population groups, while COVID-19 vaccination programmes are targeting the whole population as a single homogeneous group. There is limited research on the promotion of influenza vaccination for university students who study, live, and socialise in close contact with a large variety of people on campus, resulting in a low vaccination rate among this underserved group. Thus, a vaccination programme tailored for university students should be developed to increase protection against influenza-like illnesses and complications, and to help achieve herd immunity across populations who spread viruses. WHO has advocated the potential value of social marketing in vaccination campaigns and highlighted the need for audience segmentation as a major prerequisite component of intervention design. This study aims to identify distinct and homogeneous groups of university students based on sociodemographic, psychographic, and behavioural attributes to inform interventions. Two-step cluster analysis was applied in a sample size of 530 university students and revealed four segments that demonstrate statistically significant differences in their attitudes, behaviours, intentions, and responses to promotion messages about seasonal influenza and COVID-19 vaccination. The findings provide a detailed understanding of segment characteristics among university students that can be applied to develop an effective social marketing campaign that can motivate influenza vaccination and cross-promote uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Purpose Understanding the influences in the decision-making process of prospective students when choosing a university is crucial in student recruitment. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of perceived source credibility on attitudes and intentions towards taking advice from significant others (e.g. parents, peers and teachers) on university choice. Design/methodology/approach In total, 626 samples from eight government-subsidised secondary schools were collected and tested using the component-based structural equation modelling of partial least squares. Findings The findings verified factors of source credibility that determine prospective students’ attitudes towards taking advice from others. Attitudes and subjective norms explained 49 per cent of the variance in intention to take advice from others on university choice. The findings of the present study provide practical marketing insights for enrolment and recruitment managers. Originality/value While most studies focus on students’ university choice in the recruitment process, studies on perceived source credibility of significant others in the university choice decision-making process are limited.

The health and economic consequences of seasonal influenza present great costs to communities. Promoting voluntary uptake of the seasonal influenza vaccine among university students, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, can deliver protective effects for both individuals and the wider community. Vaccine uptake will be greatest when more of the social marketing benchmarks are applied. This systematic review summarizes evidence from programs aiming to increase seasonal influenza vaccination among university students. Six major electronic databases for health promotion studies (PubMed, EBSCO, ProQuest, Ovid, Web of Science, and ScienceDirect) were searched in November 2021 to capture peer-reviewed studies reporting field trials that have sought to increase seasonal influenza vaccination in university student populations, without any restrictions regarding the publication period. Following PRISMA guidelines, this paper identified 12 peer-reviewed studies that were conducted in the field in the United States, Australia, and Spain. Three studies were targeted at healthcare students and the rest focused on wider university student populations. Studies were narratively summarized, evidence of social marketing principles were identified, and quantitative outcomes were meta-analyzed. The findings indicate that none of the field studies, even a self-classified social marketing study, had adopted all eight of the social marketing benchmarks in program design and implementation. The two studies that only used promotion, but not other marketing-mix and social marketing principles, reported increases in students’ intention to be vaccinated but not actual behavior. Given that change is more likely when more social benchmarks are applied, this paper identifies activities that can be included in flu vaccine programs to improve flu vaccine uptake rates. The analysis highlights a lack of field studies focusing on increasing rates of vaccination behavior as research outcomes in countries beyond the United States.

Seasonal flu vaccination rates among university students are exceedingly low and research focused on voluntarily influencing vaccination uptake is limited. This study outlines the development, implementation, and evaluation of a theory-driven social marketing vaccination intervention following the co-create-build-engage (CBE) framework. This study drew upon a pre-intervention segmentation study and co-created interventions targeted at receptive segments. The intervention delivered a significant 343% increase in vaccination rates using a difference-in-difference analysis. Online communication channels effectively engaged students to register for and receive their flu vaccine Almost 90% of students who received vaccinations signed up in the first two weeks of the intervention program indicating that those who can be motivated will act early in the flu season. Financial incentives, as found in previous studies, were confirmed as highly effective in increasing awareness and influencing vaccination uptake behaviours. Friend referral incentives were also found to be influential in motivating vaccination uptake. Suggestions are provided for future research and practical implementation of interventions on university campuses to motivate flu vaccination and other health behaviours.